How to Prepare Your Plumbing for Winter Weather
The arrival of fall in North Mississippi is a welcome and beautiful season. The intense humidity of summer gives way to crisp, pleasant air, and we begin to enjoy the cozy comforts of home. But this beautiful transition is also a clear and urgent signal that winter is on its way. While our winters may not be as severe as those in the far north, we are no strangers to periods of hard, freezing temperatures that can pose a significant and costly threat to one of your home’s most essential systems: your plumbing.
A single frozen and burst pipe is one of the most destructive and expensive disasters a homeowner can face. The water damage can be catastrophic, ruining drywall, flooring, insulation, and cherished personal belongings. The good news is that this disaster is almost always preventable. By taking a few simple, proactive steps during the calm of autumn, you can prepare your plumbing system to withstand the coldest nights of the year. This process, often called winterization, is a crucial part of responsible homeownership and an investment in your peace of mind.
Protect Your First Line of Defense: Exterior Plumbing
The pipes and fixtures on the exterior of your home are the most vulnerable to freezing temperatures, as they are the most directly exposed to the cold air. Preparing these components is the first and most important step in any winterization plan.
Your top priority should be to address your garden hoses and outdoor faucets, often called hose bibs or spigots. Before the first hard freeze is forecasted, you must disconnect all of your garden hoses from their spigots. This is a non-negotiable step. If a hose is left attached, any water trapped inside can freeze. As the ice expands, it can create an ice dam that pushes back into the spigot and the supply pipe inside your wall, causing it to crack and burst. After you have disconnected your hoses, be sure to drain them completely of any remaining water and store them in a garage or shed for the winter.
Once the hoses are disconnected, the next step is to protect the spigots themselves. Many homes in the Olive Branch area have a separate, dedicated shutoff valve for each outdoor faucet, which is typically located in a basement, crawl space, or utility closet. You should close this valve to shut off the water supply to the spigot. Then, go back outside and open the spigot to allow any remaining water in the pipe to drain out completely. For the ultimate level of protection, you can purchase an inexpensive foam faucet cover from any hardware store. These simple insulating domes fit snugly over the spigot and help to protect it from the cold, windy air. For homes with sprinkler systems, it is essential to have the system professionally blown out with an air compressor to remove all the water from the underground lines.
Insulate and Seal Vulnerable Interior Pipes
Even inside your home, not all pipes are created equal. The pipes that are most at risk of freezing are those that run through unconditioned or poorly heated spaces, where they are not protected by your home’s main source of heat. These vulnerable areas include your crawl space, your unfinished basement, your attic, and any pipes that are located in uninsulated exterior walls.
The most effective way to protect these pipes is with insulation. You can purchase inexpensive foam pipe sleeves from any home improvement store. These sleeves are pre-slit, allowing them to be easily slipped over your pipes, and they are available in different diameters to ensure a snug fit. This insulation does not add heat to the pipes; rather, it dramatically slows down the rate at which the heat from the water inside the pipe is lost to the cold surrounding air. You should focus on insulating both the hot and cold water supply lines in these unheated areas.
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In addition to insulating the pipes, it is also crucial to prevent the cold outdoor air from getting to them in the first place. Take the time to carefully inspect the areas where your pipes penetrate the exterior walls of your home, such as the pipes that run under your kitchen or bathroom sinks. It is common to find small gaps and cracks around these penetrations that allow a steady stream of cold winter air to blow directly onto your pipes. Sealing these gaps with caulk or expanding foam insulation is an excellent and inexpensive way to protect your pipes and to improve your home’s overall energy efficiency.
Proactive Steps During a Deep Freeze
When the weather forecast calls for a particularly severe and prolonged period of sub-freezing temperatures, there are a few extra, temporary steps you can take to provide an added layer of protection for your plumbing.
One of the most effective strategies is to allow a few of your faucets to drip slowly. Moving water is much more difficult to freeze than still water. A slow but steady drip from the one or two faucets in your home that are the furthest away from your water heater or are located on an exterior wall can be just enough to keep the water in your entire system moving and to prevent a freeze-up. It should be a very slow drip, not a steady stream.
Another excellent and no-cost trick is to open the cabinet doors under your kitchen and bathroom sinks, especially if those sinks are located on an outside wall. This simple action allows the warm, heated air from your home to circulate freely around the water supply pipes, providing them with an extra bit of crucial warmth and protection. Finally, if you are planning to be away from home for an extended period during the winter, you should never turn your heat completely off. Instead, set your thermostat to a safe and consistent minimum temperature, such as 55 degrees, to ensure the interior of your home and your pipes stay safely above freezing.
Give Your Water Heater a Winter Check-Up
Your water heater works hard all year long, but the winter season places a unique set of demands on it. The incoming city water is significantly colder in the winter, which means your water heater has to work much harder and use more energy to bring that water up to your desired temperature. A few simple checks in the fall can ensure it is ready for the task.
First, check the temperature setting on your water heater. For both safety and efficiency, the Department of Energy recommends a setting of 120 degrees Fahrenheit. A setting that is too high not only wastes a significant amount of energy on standby heat loss but also increases the risk of a dangerous scalding injury.
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You can also take steps to improve your water heater’s efficiency by insulating it. If you have an older water heater, you can purchase a specially designed insulating blanket to wrap around the tank. This simple step can reduce standby heat loss by 25 to 45 percent, saving you money on your utility bill every single month. It is also a very cost-effective idea to insulate the first several feet of the hot water pipes that come out of the top of your water heater, which further reduces heat loss and allows you to get hot water to your taps a little bit faster.
Know Your Emergency Shut-Off Plan
Even with the best preparation, emergencies can sometimes happen. The most critical piece of knowledge for any homeowner in a plumbing emergency is the location of their home’s main water shutoff valve. If a pipe does burst, your ability to quickly shut off the water to your entire house is the key to preventing a minor disaster from becoming a catastrophic one.
The main water shutoff is typically located where the main water supply line enters your house. In an Olive Branch home, this could be in a basement, a crawl space, a utility closet, or in a covered box in the ground near the street. Every single adult in your household should know the location of this valve and how to operate it. It is a good idea to test the valve once a year to make sure it is not seized up.
It is also a wise idea to have the number of a trusted, 24/7 emergency plumber saved in your phone before you ever need it. When a pipe has burst and your home is flooding, you do not want to be frantically searching online for a reputable company.
The threat of a frozen and burst pipe is a real and serious one for every homeowner in North Mississippi. The good news is that with a small amount of proactive preparation, it is an almost entirely preventable disaster. By taking the time this fall to prepare your exterior faucets, insulate your vulnerable interior pipes, and create a plan for the coldest nights of the year, you are making a smart and valuable investment in your home.
This seasonal preparation provides more than just protection; it provides peace of mind. If you need assistance with winterizing your plumbing system or if you ever face a plumbing emergency, we encourage you to contact the expert team at Hometown HVACR. We are proud to serve our neighbors in Olive Branch with the professional plumbing and heating services needed to ensure your home is safe, warm, and ready for whatever the winter brings.